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Anthropology research team highlights xenophobia at international conference

11 June 2021 | Story Rulanzen Martin | Photo Supplied

Prof Joy Owen_web read more — Prof Joy Owen believes in the mutual intellectual push between research supervisor and student.

Prof Joy Owen, Head of the Department of Anthropology, and two of her students, Ingrid Juries, PhD student and Mamokoena Mokoena, Master’s student, presented a paper exploring the experiences of migrants, at the virtual Oxford Migration Conference that took place from 10 to 11 May 2021 under the theme Borders and Justice.

According to Prof Owen, their paper Bordering on complexity? African migrants’ narratives of boundary creation and dissolution, “tries to make a particular intervention in the transnational migration literature – inclusive of diasporic and refugee studies – which speaks to the complexity of reception in ‘host’ countries”. Their paper and presentation were included in Routed, a special conference magazine.

The mainstream portrayal of migrants and residents is that of one-sided aversion and sometimes violence, which gives rise to xenophobic attacks. However, the work done by Prof Owen, Mokoena, and Juries illustrates the ‘rather messy experiences’ of both migrants and citizens and the interpersonal relationships that may result from it. “These relationships are not merely riddled with negative experiences, but also positive, life-affirming experiences for both migrant and citizen,” says Prof Owen.

Xenophobia in South Africa

South Africa in particular, has seen a rise in xenophobic attacks and xenophobia in general, which begs the questions – do we need more research on the matter? Prof Owen says no. “There’s vast literature on xenophobia, and more recently xenophilia – ‘the love of the other’. We need more research that demonstrates the ways in which non-citizens have become part of the South African socio-economic and political fabric,” says Prof Owen.

The complexities of our history in South Africa, that of migration and settlement. “How we narrate those stories, and what we focus on, confirms how we define ourselves as contemporary South Africans, inclusive of migrants in our midst,” says Prof Owen.

Mutual intellectual push

For Prof Owen, it is important to reiterate that although Juries and Mokoena are under her supervision, they were also her collaborators for the conference presentation. “Their contemporary knowledge and understanding of the intricate and embattled experiences of migrants in South Africa is growing,” she says. It is a privilege for her to witness the fast, immediate intellectual growth of her students and their academic prowess while being pushed intellectually herself. “That is fundamentally the role of education, is it not? To keep pushing beyond the knowledge we have accrued in service to society,” Prof Owen says.

News Archive

Professor Antjie Krog to deliver public lecture at UFS Bloemfontein Campus

2015-06-19

Professor Antjie Krog – illustrious author, poet, and academic – will deliver a public lecture at the University of the Free State’s (UFS) Bloemfontein Campus. The topic of her discussion will be ‘They Couldn’t Achieve their Goal with Me: Narrating Rape during the South African War’.

Prof Krog’s lecture will be the third instalment of the Vice-Chancellor’s Lecture Series on Trauma, Memory and Representations of the Past. The lecture series is hosted by Prof Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, Senior Research Professor in Trauma, Forgiveness, and Reconciliation Studies at the UFS, as part of a five-year research project funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Details of the event:
Date: Tuesday 23 June 2015
Time: 12:00
Venue: Albert Wessels Auditorium, UFS Bloemfontein Campus
Members of the public are welcome to attend
RSVP to Jo-Anne Naidoo: NaidooJA@ufs.ac.za

Acts of rape during South African War

To set the context of her lecture, Prof Krog explains that, about two months before the South African War officially ended on 31 May 1902, affidavits were taken from women about transgressions experienced at the hands of British soldiers. These acts included plunder, killing of stock, abduction, sexual assault, and rape. Her lecture is the first scholarly focus in terms of narrative and agency on the affidavits of 24 incidents of sexual assaults and rape since the 25-year embargo on these documents was lifted in 1982. The shelving of these affidavits is indicative of how even transcultural multiple processes failed to create an honest discourse in post-colonial South Africa about sexual violence.

Paving the way to healing historical wounds

The series focuses on the portrayal of trauma and memory in multiple ways – such as the narrative arts represented by Prof Krog. These forms of expression may ultimately pave the way to healing historical wounds.

“This topic is very timely, given a recent NRF grant we’ve been awarded for research on transgenerational trauma related to the South African war,” Prof Gobodo-Madikizela says in anticipation of the lecture.

Previous instalments of Vice-Chancellor’s Lecture Series

The first instalment of the Vice-Chancellor’s Lecture Series on Trauma, Memory and Representations of the Past was delivered by former Constitutional Court Judge, Albie Sachs, in which he discussed ‘Sites of memory, sites of conscience’. Internationally acclaimed composer and sound artist, Philip Miller, delivered the second lecture, ‘Disrupting the Silence: The Past and Transnational Memory’.

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